Strabo (5,4,13) interchangeably uses the ethnonyms Πικεντῖνοι and Πίκεντες to describe a group of Πικεντῖνοι transferred by the Romans from the Adriatic coast to the Gulf of Paestum. The aim of this article is to account for an apparent philological inconsistency in the text and to provide a historical context for this episode. First, it is argued that the two ethnonyms Πικεντῖνοι (Picentini) and Πίκεντες (Picentes) are in fact synonymous and can refer to both Adriatic and Tyrrhenian Picentes. Their simultaneous use by Strabo in this particular passage can be explained as deriving from two different sources, namely Timaeus and Polybius. Second, population transfers are shown to be a well attested strategy employed by the Romans in order to consolidate their control of the Italian peninsula throughout a series of conflicts in the 260s BC. The transfer of a group of Picentes to the Gulf of Paestum, leading to the creation of a new community of socii around a city renamed Picentia, can thus be understood as a consequence of the annexation of Picenum in 268 BC.